Aguafiestas is from the two words, agua and fiestas. Agua being water and fiestas parties, a wet party. But more properly it is a slang term for a wet blanket, a kill joy, a party pooper, or someone who takes all the fun out.

In Spanish (or Mexico at least), you don’t ask a person if they understand you, you ask them if you are making yourself clear. To ask them if they understand is putting the blame on them if they do not. But by asking if you are explaining yourself then you place the blame on yourself for being clear.

A native Mexican will ask “¿me explico?“, while an outsider might ask “¿me entiendes?”

This is where culture influences the language. You will see many reflexive verbs used in such a way as to not place blame on anyone in particular. Rather the blame is placed on an inanimate object so as not to offend. For example, “se me olvidó.” Literally translated it means “it forgot me.” As an English speaker we would say “I forgot it,” clearly placing the blame on ourselves and not the object forgotten.

How is this used in your country?

While driving through town the other day I spotted a sign on a house advertising a bufete jurídico.

Now bufete makes me think of lots of food, and it does refer to a table used to hold a lot of food. It also means a desk or the office of a lawyer.

Jurídico means a persons rights or something legal.

A bufete jurídico  is law offices or a law firm.

Cárcel is a jail. Like in English, there are several words to name a jail in Spanish. Other names are prisión, penal and presidio. Those are dictionary words to describe a place for prisoners.

In English we also have the slang terms slammer, cooler, crowbar hotel, pen, joint and pokey (just to name a few). What slang terms are there for the pen in Spanish?

If you have ever watched Speedy Gonzales on TV you have heard him say “¡ándale!” From what I have read, this usage of the verb andar is pretty unique to Mexico. It has several meanings.

It can mean “come on, hurry up!”

Or, “That’s it! You got it.”

If used in a whining way while begging it can mean, “Please! Can I have it?”

I hear it used a lot here in Mexico. I read someone saying that if used in most other countries in this way, it will be assumed that you are from Mexico.

Fijar is to stick or affix one thing to another. It would be used with cola when you want to stick an item to something else, i.e.: use la cola para fijar el papel en la pared.

An interesting usage of the word though is to pay attention. Literally you tell someone to fix themselves on the subject. It is very common to hear “fíate en esto”, “listen to this” or “pay attention to this.”

The word varonilmente has shown up the last few times at church. It is an interesting word. The base word is varón which means man. Varonilmente therefore is literally manly. It is also used to mean valiant.